FA Premiership/ Manchester City 1 Arsenal 3: Arsenal hover with vicious intent on Tottenham Hotspur's shoulder this morning.
Manchester City were swept aside late last night, a pair of glorious late goals from Jose Antonio Reyes propelling the European Cup finalists to within a point of their north London rivals with the season's finale awaiting on Sunday. Victorious with a swagger here, and with Barcelona to come in Paris, the momentum is with Arsene Wenger's side.
At times last night Arsenal's pursuit of fourth place had threatened to stumble, with Manchester City recovering a deficit to hold their own and even suggest they could get a first Premiership victory against these opponents at the 18th attempt.
Yet there is such devilish attacking intent in Wenger's squad that the visitors could not be quelled for good. With 12 minutes remaining Robert Pires sent Emmanuel Eboue to the by-line, with his pull-back dispatched first time beyond a despairing David James by Reyes. City were still gasping at the ruthless speed of that attack when Thierry Henry split them apart, the Frenchman squaring his pass having glided into the area for Reyes to gather and curl in a glorious third.
Just as at Sunderland three days previously, Arsenal had appeared almost uninterested over the opening half hour. Their passing was slipshod, Henry anonymous, and their midfield invention becalmed, with City duly allowed to hog possession.
The home side even eked out the odd chance. Claudio Reyna, bustling and inventive, emerged from the ball-play among those in blue to clip Georgios Samaras pass beyond Eboue only for the Greek to dawdle as he entered the penalty area and Sol Campbell, sprinting in to challenge, suffocated the opportunity.
Yet while City spotted encouragement, the visitors were coiled and preparing to pounce. With their hosts cruelly lulled into a false sense of security, Henry's first contribution of any note was to produce a stunning reverse pass inside David Sommeil and Richard Dunne which was collected by Freddie Ljungberg. The Swede might have been marginally offside but, unflagged, he veered across Micah Richards and speared his first Premiership goal since April 2005 low and across David James.
By the interval Campbell, leaping to flick a free header wide from Henry's corner, and the Frenchman himself - after a swerving run away from four home players and an exchange with Robin van Persie - should have added a second, though, critically, City had already proved more resilient than Sunderland.
Where the bottom club had capitulated on Monday, Stuart Pearce's charges rallied and mustered an equaliser. From Joey Barton's corner seven minutes from the interval, Trevor Sinclair's header zipped between bodies in the six-yard box with Darius Vassell swivelling and distracting Jens Lehmann. The striker missed the ball which dribbled instead from the unsighted goalkeeper's body for Sommeil to touch in from point-blank range.
- Guardian Service
MANCHESTER CITY: James, Jihai, Dunne, Richards, Sommeil, Sinclair (Croft 77), Barton, Reyna, Riera (Flood 82), Vassell, Samaras. Subs not used: Weaver, Matthew Mills, Wright-Phillips. Booked: Riera, Vassell, Dunne. Goal: Sommeil 38.
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Eboue, Toure, Campbell, Cole, Hleb (Pires 72), Silva, Song Billong (Fabregas 58), Ljungberg, Henry, Van Persie (Reyes 72). Subs not used: Almunia, Djourou. Goals: Ljungberg 30, Reyes 78, 84.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
